I personally love cosplaying the lesser known and unpopular characters. I don't like being one of the many of the same character running around a con. Plus I love seeing the expressions on people's faces when they recognize who I am cosplaying.

has anyone had experiences with niche characters that dont get a lot of love?

Basically what I do at all cons XD

Yeah, my characters won't get as much recognition as your average Bleach/Pokemon/Madoka/<Insert other popular anime here> characters, given how small the fandom is compared to such larger fandoms, but I cosplay mostly for fun than recognition, so it doesn't matter if people hardly recognize my cosplays.

__________________Anime consThat one lifeboat which keeps a kanmusu afloat
That one party which keeps a touhou hearty
That one warzone you take upon your own
That one big jive that keeps you alive

When the lights go on where you stand upon,
Colors intertwine and it's your time to shine
The mic on the stage and listeners engage
In the great rapport of what we all adore

The march through the town from the doors of Crowne
Come one come all, let's have a merry time y'all!

I usually cosplay lesser known characters, not on purpose, but because I simply fell in love with them/feel the same way as the lesser known characters/sidekicks.
I don't get as much attention as someone cosplaying from a new hyped series. But that's totally okay since I really don't like attention much, haha xD I just love to portray and PLAY the characters I love and have fun with my friends.

One thing that happens to appear though, is, that IF somebody knows who you are cosplaying, you can have the most awesome talks with those.
When I cosplayed Beatrix I got a lot of nice people comming up to me, fangirling over how they love that someone did her finally. They were so hyped and happy that it was nearly a little scary. But seriously all of them were adorable sweethearts!
We talked and talked with no end in sight about the character and game, game-music and costume etc.
I met some of the nicest people due to cosplaying lesser known characters.

I don't know why but if I cosplay a character which is well known (and a few others already run around with the same costume) people don't tend to be so hyped and happy. Sure you hear a lot of "wow nice! awesome" maybe, but you never get in touch with the people as much as I experienced with the lesser known characters.

You don't get much or any attention at all, but you get to talk with some people which are just awesome and share the same amount of love for the character as you do.
At least that's what I experienced. I'm not saying this won't happen if you cosplay something well-known or popular. No no no, it also can happen if you're cosplaying some popular character, but the amount of people is different somehow.But it's just what I experienced so far.
And I'd never want to change that. I love beeing under the radar and have nice talks with awesome people from time to time while having huge loads of fun with my friends all day.(without having to stop every 3 metres for a photo or get interrupted in talks every minute)

Yeah, my characters won't get as much recognition as your average Bleach/Pokemon/Madoka/<Insert other popular anime here> characters, given how small the fandom is compared to such larger fandoms, but I cosplay mostly for fun than recognition, so it doesn't matter if people hardly recognize my cosplays.

I started cosplaying Black Star back when Soul Eater was really small so a lot of recognition didn't come my way. Then the next con I went to, WHAM! Hugs all over the place.

It's perfectly fine. You never know when you might get recognized more than you expect! I personally like it when a fellow fan recognizes your character and appreciates you for representing them. You will usually end up befriending and hanging out with these people.

I remember last year at a con I went as Guido Mista from JJBA and two fellow fans ran into me. They were super nice and we had a small talk about how their friend saw a Giorno (from the same series) the previous day, and how the two were bummed for missing that person. Guess what? That person also happened to be me, and I told them about it. They had the biggest smile in their faces and they were so glad that an old-schooler like me is still around doing this hobby XD. We ended up chatting about Araki and JoJo stuff while we shop around the dealers hall before heading our separate ways.

So long story short, it's more than okay to choose a character you feel is less popular. At the end of the day, it really is just about having fun with your character. The whole cosplay experience is enough for me to warrant dressing up silly haha. Recognition is just an extra bonus.

I see nothing wrong with cosplaying unknown/unpopular characters if that is what you really want. I personally don't go by what is or isn't popular, but what I like. As long as you are having fun and enjoying it, that's what really matters.

I have a feeling that if I finish my costume and able to make it to Anime Expo, I will probably one of the only Trauma Center cosplayers there (there might be a few others, but fandom is kind of small). Either way it's cool.

I didn't get as much recognition from Vanessa at Metrocon which I thought was surprising but I guess Luminous Arc isn't that well known with the younger crowd? I thought it was really well known (or maybe my cosplay needed some serious work which I am in the process of fine tuning XD)

I'm worried this might happen with Veran too, I'm entering her into a contest but at the same time, I have seen lots of characters that I didn't recognize that I thought were so cool. For example, the winners at last years Metrocon had this AMAZING armor and I loved the outfits. No idea what the cosplay was from but it was beautiful. So I don't think it matters on whether or not they notice the series it's a matter of how much you put into the costume. I'm sure once I fix Vanessa and make her look better (I had some costume malfunctions that's why I didn't wear her again Sat/Sun) and finish her scythe she will get some notice. Not that I mind, the few people that did notice the character loved her. :3

I don't usually cosplay as unpopular or unknown characters myself, but i love it when other people do~! If someone is cosplaying as an unpopular character from an anime/tv show/video game/etc. and I happen to know that anime/tv show/ etc. It's like the most awesome moment ever to see lesser-known characters get some love~. Even if i don't know the character they're cosplaying as, it's nice to snap a picture of them and start up a conversation with them about who they're cosplaying as. It's a good way to make new friends and find some new shows or video games to get into~

I do that all the time. One year I was Miyu from Vampire Princess Miyu and it was cool when someone recognized me. I also ran into another Miyu and we hung out of a bit. It was kind of like, "Hey someone else who's heard of this show!"

Cosplaying is about the characters YOU, as the one cosplaying them, know and like. I wouldn't care if my character is not known or not popular as long as I'm happy with my choice. Doing characters people like maybe nice if you feel comfortable with the character, but if you're not 100% satisfied with your choice, you just won't have a good time. When I cosplayed as Rikku from Final Fantasy, I realized that I just didn't like her enough and I always felt a bit uncomfotable in my costume. I had a photoshoot back then as her, but you can see in the photos that I couldn't get a grasp on her characteristics...

I think a cosplay is best when someone likes his character and can present him well. I've taken photos of characters I didn't knew or didn't like that much just because I thought the cosplays looked great and the cosplayers did a good job at playing them ^^